Mobile

You knew it was going to happen -- just days after Pebble's Time smartwatch topped the company's previous Kickstarter record, it's now the most-funded Kickstarter project ever at more than $13.3 million. Almost all of the pledge money has gone toward the basic wristwear so far, but it's the unveiling of the higher-end Pebble Time Steel that put the campaign over the top. It's still not shocking that Pebble would do so well given its established fan base and skillful use (or abuse) of crowdfunding for publicity. The real question is whether or not the Time will face any stiff competition in the near future. Barring surprises, it'll likely rule the roost for a long while.

You no longer have to carry an iPhone just to check out Square's restaurant delivery service, Caviar -- it's now available for Android. Like before, you can both order fine meals and track the couriers in real-time as they bring that dining to your door. You'll still have to live in one of Caviar's few eligible cities (New York City, LA and San Francisco are particularly well-covered) to give it a shot, but you'll at least get to use your device of choice when splurging on a Mediterranean feast.

If you carry an iPhone but would rather accessorize it with a Moto 360 than an Apple Watch, you might just get that choice without resorting to unofficial tricks. Sources for French outlet 01netclaim that Google is "preparing to launch" an iOS version of its Android Wear app. There aren't any other details, although it's safe to say that third-party app support would require additional effort -- it wouldn't be an Android-to-Android connection any more, after all. This is very much a rumor and may not pan out, so don't assume that you'll be strapping on a Huawei Watch any time soon. With that said, Google isn't strictly denying that something is afoot. The folks in Mountain View tell us they "don't have anything to share at this time," so hope springs eternal.

BlackBerry spent a long, long time courting the world's business buffs, and for a while its phones were corporate icons as much as they were communicators. Now the folks in Waterloo are making another play for all the "young, mobile professionals" out there... or at least ones that don't give a lick about what's ticking away inside their phones. See, the Leap is BlackBerry's latest attempt at clawing into youngsters' pockets and it comes bearing a few familiar-sounding parts from years past. That might not be a dealbreaker considering the Leap'll cost you only $275 without a contract, and you know what? The thing actually makes a pretty good first impression.

BlackBerry's recovery relies on the company's reinvention as a software and services business, which has enabled its hardware designers to go a little bit wild. At Mobile World Congress, BB's handset chief Ron Louks just pulled out a prototype of a handset that looks like the holy union between the Leap and the Passport. There's no name for the device just yet, but the company describes it as a "dual-curved, all-touch display with a keyboard," with that latter component situated on an old-fashioned slider beneath the display.

Who'd ever be dorky enough to wear a smartglass and a smartwatch at the same time? Virgin Atlantic employees, apparently. The company has partnered with Sony to equip its plane engineers at Heathrow Airport with the Sony SmartWatch 3 and the SmartEyeglass Developer Edition SED-E1 for the next few months, starting next week. This, by the way, comes a year after Virgin had its ground crew from the same airport wear both a Sony Smartwatch 2 and a Google Glass to greet Upper Class passengers by name. According to Sony, the engineers will use the smartglass to stream real-time videos to technicians to speed up technical assistance. The smartwatch, on the other hand, will notify them of job allocations and any changes they should know of.

We're here at BlackBerry's cozy MWC press event waiting anxiously for CEO John Chen (or anyone, for that matter) to pull back the curtain on the oft-rumored BlackBerry Leap. So far, all we've gotten is a recap of progress to date and some security-minded endeavors, but surprise, surprise -- the $275 Leap just popped up on BlackBerry's global devices site for all to see.

Next time you buy an Android phone, you just might find Waze among its pre-installed apps. See, it's now part of Google Mobile Services, or what you call the list of Android apps that manufacturers and carriers can install before shipping devices out to buyers. If you recall, Mountain View snapped up the navigation app back in 2013, and it remained separate from Google Maps. In Google's and Waze's announcement at the Mobile World Congress, spokesperson Julie Mossler wrote: "If a leading telecom pre-installs Waze in his handsets, a large percentage of the population would immediately have access to blocked roads, dangerous intersections traffic and more in real time."

After a lengthy hiatus, Mortal Kombat is coming back to the mobile world -- and it's giving you a few extra incentives to brutalize fighters while you're waiting for the bus. Mortal Kombat X will reach Android and iOS users on April 14th with not just the obligatory fatalities and other gory details, but a two-way reward system that encourages you to keep playing when you switch platforms. If you thrash enough suckers to unlock content on your phone, for example, you'll get some perks when you fire up your console at home. Something tells us the mobile MKX won't be as challenging as its full-size counterpart (swipe to finish someone off, really?), but look at it this way: it's not often that you get to break someone's jaw on your commute and feel good about it later.

So you want to play games on your Android TV set, but you'd rather not shell out for a gamepad? You might not have to in the near future. Google has revealed that an upcoming update to Google Play Services will let you use your Android mobile devices as controllers for Android TV games. If you want to start a four-way race or shooting match, you'll only have to ask friends to pull their phones out of their pockets. You'll have to wait for developers to use the technology before you can start playing, but that patience could pay off if it spares you from buying controllers that will likely spend most of their life gathering dust.

While its first Android Wear smartwatch might be grabbing the headlines, Huawei also has a new phablet on display at MWC this year. The MediaPad X2 is the sequel to last year's X1, which, depending on how you look at it, was either a small tablet or an enormous phone. There's not a lot new to look at here -- aesthetically it's very similar to the X1 -- but internally there are a few changes.

PayPal is no stranger to mobile payment solutions, but at Mobile World Congress, the company is making a useful upgrade to its Here card reader. In addition to being able to handle payments from those chip-and-PIN credit/debit cards, the new version of PayPal's transaction tech will also support NFC. This means that not only will the latest version of Here wrangle touchless payments from the aforementioned cards, but it'll also allow retailers to accept funds from mobile devices. It's said to work just like terminals in retail stores, except this add-on connects with a separate mobile device to power the whole thing. That's good news for the PayPal faithful as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Android Pay all leverage NFC to transfer funds. There's no word on pricing just yet, but the new version of Here will hit the UK and Australia this summer, with a US debut slated for later this year.

Don't miss out on all the latest news, photos and liveblogs from MWC 2015. Follow along at our events page.

MWC technically starts today, but that didn't stop some of the industry's biggest players from trying to get a head start on the fun on Sunday. Besides the big launches, there were a couple of pre-show events for those offbeat things that didn't need an auditorium to themselves. This means the preceding Sunday is actually one of the busiest days for big announcements. Here's the pick of the bunch this year, just head to the gallery below.

Did you sleep in on Sunday, only to realize that you'd missed Samsung's big Galaxy Unpacked event? Relax -- you can still watch the show as if it were fresh. As is its custom, the Korean tech giant has helpfully posted both a replay of the full event and a quick recap. The focus of the presentation is no longer all that surprising (spoiler: It was about the Galaxy S6 and S6 edge), but it's worth checking out if you want to see Samsung explore every nook and cranny of its latest smartphones.